Sunday, October 07, 2007

"HOMOINE, Mozambique -- As dusk fell deep in a forest of mango and palm trees, Jaime Jeremias Matsimbe sat on the rose-colored dirt and hand-cranked a shortwave radio, looking for the word of God.

He wound the little plastic handle round and round, charging the radio like winding a watch, and soon a preacher's voice boomed across a courtyard filled with goats and turkeys. Twenty miles from the nearest paved road, Matsimbe smiled as he listened to a Texas preacher's sermons about Jesus and Saint Paul, translated into a local language spoken only in the southern African backcountry."

This is a fairly long article about a style of ministry that may not seem critical here, where we have our choice of radio, television, podcasts, or even going to church on nearly any given day. For many or most of those being served, a crank-up radio is their only link to the wider world.

One area in which the radio is providing not only spiritual sustenance, but much-needed information, is in the fight against HIV-AIDS. For some, this is the first time they have heard factual information in their own language.

This article deals some with Islamic and Hindu radio networks, but most of the article deals with Christian ministries over the airways.